communism vs. modernism?

Subject: Re: we start on chapter 3----> now
To: missias@mail.med.upenn.edu (AC Missias)
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1999 16:47:02 -0400 (EDT)
Cc: 88v@dept.english.upenn.edu
Sender: owner-88v@dept.english.upenn.edu
Precedence: bulk

88'ers:

Below I continue to create the modernism vs. socialism/communism
distinction as a stark pair of alternatives. Obviously it's never that
stark. But it *IS* true that you couldn't imagine a clearer opposition
between, let's say, the

                communist poetry of Edwin Rolfe
and             the modernist poetry of Gertrude Stein.

Right? Read on.....

Al had written:
| >(Does anyone recognize the structure of English 88 in any of this?
| >Remember that we prepared ourselves for this argument by trying imagine
| >the disagreements between the Dickinsonian mode and the Whitman mode,
the
| >first intensive and language-conscious to the alleged exclusion of the
| >social; the second extensive and descriptive/denotative with the idea
of
| >including the social utterly.)
|
A.C. responded:
| well, seeing this kind of struggle with the real basics of life -- for
food
| and survival -- going on during the Depression kind of makes the
| modernists' questions like "how can language be deconstructed" seem like
| appalling shows of indifference or lack of perspective.  like, the
| intellectual questions are interesting, but maybe it's irresponsible to
be
| playing word-games when there are social injustices causing the less
| fortunate to die in the streets.  the Baroness's amusing excesses
suddenly
| seem almost horrendous.

So A.C. clarifies the argument or disagreement between the communist
position and the modernist position:

        modernism                       this poetry--social poetry--
        according to                    according to the social
        communists                      (communist) poets

Status: O

e to die in the streets.  the Baroness's amusing excesses suddenly
| seem almost horrendous.

So A.C. clarifies the argument or disagreement between the communist
position and the modernist position:

        modernism                       this poetry--social poetry--
        according to                    according to the social
        communists                      (communist) poets
        ----------                      ----------------------

        irresponsible                   responsible
        indifferent                     politically engaged
        apolitical                      radically political

        playing word-                   playing no word games
        games while                     --writing a poetry that looks
        people starve                   past language directly to
                                        people in need

        language-obsessed               not language-obsessed
        intensive                       but extensive and outward-looking

To what extent to you (all 88'ers) agree with this formulation? To what
extent *was* modernism "irresponsible"?

---

navigate 88v: schedule | key | home | PAPERs | | m a i l the s t a f f